Summertime, and the living is easy…at least that’s what the song says! In the real world, it is hot as blazes and some of us spent too much time in the sun without our hats. (I had a hat, I just left it on the dining room table.)
Beth Y. shared a great article with me called “9 Words for the Wild and Carefree,” and I thought it was perfect for these summer days. Today I’ll share the first four with you; tomorrow you get the next five. Merriam-Webster goes into more detail for each word, but here you get the abbreviated version, along with some of the pictures illustrating the words. Enjoy!
- daredevil (adjective) recklessly and often ostentatiously daring
- madcap (adjective) marked by capriciousness, recklessness, or foolishness
Your thinking cap helps you think and your madcap makes you mad—as in "like the Hatter from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland," not "angry." Although madcap is more familiar as an adjective, Shakespeare liked the noun version of this word, which in fact never applied to a literal cap, but referred to a madcap person: "Come on, you madcap; I’ll to the alehouse with you presently; where, for one shot of five pence, thou shalt have five thousand welcomes" (The Two Gentlemen of Verona). As an adjective the word typically describes schemes and antics and zany movie plots.
- happy-go-lucky (adjective) blithely unconcerned: carefree
- foolhardy (adjective) foolishly adventurous and bold: rash
Kara Church
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